First Period
Highlights
- 1:40 in and Lyon has his first save of the night, on Pavel Zacha and it was actually pretty good!
- 2:47 and Patrick takes down Hischier, two minutes in the box for hooking.
- The Powerplay Show begins and the Devils Palmieri snipes one near side over Lyon’s shoulder, puts the Devils up 1-0 early in the first at 3:42, Zacha and Hall assist.
- 5:33 and 6:31 Devils take two penalties, Mueller for interference and Zajac for a crosscheck, respectively.
- Fifteen seconds into the 5-on-3 and Giroux finds the back on an empty net, ties it up at 1. Voracek and Simmonds assist.
- 8:48 and Lyon decides to pull a Ryan Miller and skate out to the blue line to clear the puck away from Travis Zajac. He cleared it out of play, but let’s hope he doesn’t continue that trend.
- 11:42 and Andrew MacDonald commits his “senseless turnover in his own zone” of the night and gives it up to the dangerous Taylor Hall. Nothing comes of it, and thank god.
- 12;47 and Gudas looks to avoid Simmonds, makes an awkward leap and absolutely decks Palmieri. Gudas left his skates, so a call from the league may be in his future. A scrum ensued, with Voracek and Manning join Gudas in the box, along with Taylor Hall and Severson for the Devils.
- Gudas took a 2 minute penalty, and Jersey took advantage, scores on the powerplay at 13:49. Stafford redirected through the wickets on Lyon, Devils go up 2-1.
- 14:48, and we all knew this was coming, Zajac drops the gloves with Gudas, and earns the decision along with a two minute minor for roughing. In my opinion, it should have been an instigator, but what do I know? I just saw a guy goad someone into a fight… Regardless, Flyers go on the powerplay.
- 15:46 and the Powerplay Show continues with Simmonds cleaning up the scraps in front of the net and tying it at 2. That’s 17 on the year and his 9th powerplay goal of the year.
- Raffl grabs a late interference call at 16:05 and we finally have our first penalty kill of the night! Ending the period on a high note!
Thoughts
Overall, it was a sloppy perioid. Between the atrocious penalty killing and the whole Gudas debacle, the Flyers need to clean up their act, and fast. Letting the game slip away from them didn’t work out too well against Washington. The success on the powerplay is encouraging, and so is Giroux getting back to putting pucks in the net. Second period should be very telling as to how the rest of this game will go. Should calm down a bit and the players should be focusing more on the game itself instead of the shenanigans surrounding it.
Second Period
Highlights
- 2:30 and the Devils are heading towards the net, Lyon comes up big with a great save. As this game progresses, he is starting to look more and more comfortable in net.
- 7:01 in and the Flyers strike to take the lead. Gostisbehere gets one to trickle past Kincaid and just like that, its 3-2 Fly Guys.
- 10:12, New Jersey gets a breakaway and Lyon comes up big once again.
- 15:03 Palmieri and Wood of New Jersey crash into the back of Alex Lyon, but Lyon was ok. Not a great play, but definitely glad that Lyon wasn’t injured. Could have spelled disaster for the Flyers’ goalie situation tonight.
- 15:46 and Konecny takes a bad penalty, two minutes for tripping.
- Wait or it… The Flyers killed off ANOTHER penalty! Guys, we’re making progress here!
Thoughts
I was really impressed with two things more so than the rest. One, Lyon is settling in nice in net. He made two great saves that period that with any goalie, it would make you nervous. Secondly, Hagg and his physical presence. The kid is a rookie and leads the league in hits. That’s incredibly impressive. He has been pretty solid all year, and at this point, looks like the best choice when considering the other two defensemen he was battling for a roster spot at the beginning of the year are down in the AHL with the Phantoms. If the Flyers can keep the pace up and not start settling back in the zone, comfortable with the lead, they can grab this game from New Jersey and therein grab two crucial points and maintain their spot in the playoffs.
Third Period
Highlights
- Pretty slow start, lots of back and forth, but things picked up closer to the middle of the period.
- 8:10 in and off the draw, Stafford rips one and Lyon makes a great glove save. Lyon looking better and better.
- 9:30 and Devils on the rush, drop pass and Lyon makes the quick save. Like I said, better and better.
- 11:00 in and the better gets worse. Zacha feeds Severon from behind the net and Severson puts it past Lyon. I won’t completely place the blame on Lyon, but it could have been stopped.
- 13:43 and Weal and Laughton are on the rush. Weal sauces one to his right and it lands on Laughton’s stick, but he can’t finish and Kincaid makes a great save.
- About a minute and a half left, and the collapse is complete. Hischier redirects one while Hagg is draped over him, right through the five hole, again, and the Devils take the lead, and keep it as time expires.
Thoughts
This was pretty embarrassing. It was a back and forth game for the most part, but the way the Flyers played in the third can only be described as a turtle retreating into its shell. It’s an embarrassment to see a team play so soft in the last period of a one goal game. That is textbook “how to blow a lead and lose a game.” I’m somewhat optimistic that Lyon can shake this one off and make another start and do better, but his five hole is in glaring need of improvement. Laughton played well in the third period, but overall he underwhelmed. I was expecting a little better game out of him considering the shakeup in lines. I guess not everyone can be like Nolan Patrick… In all seriousness, this was a game that should have been tallied up in the win column for the Flyers, but they became complacent and let the lead slip away from them. It’s fixable, but it starts at the top. The coaches can’t become complacent with a one goal lead, plain and simple. One goal in hockey is not the kind of lead you say, “hey, let’s just mail it in.” If the Flyers had that killer instinct in the third period, they would have put the game away early and never looked back. Hopefully they can get their act together before Saturday, because if they lose to Ottawa, we’re all going to know that something is wrong. Until then, do better Flyers, because a lot of us are sick of losing games that we should be winning.
Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports
